[mythtv-users] tv_grab_au immir... defunct?

redcane at redcane.homelinux.org redcane at redcane.homelinux.org
Mon Jul 17 04:18:25 UTC 2006


> On Mon, Jul 17, 2006 at 08:01:54AM +1000, Mark Hetherington wrote:
>> Is anyone still wanting to work on the script?
>> I'm willing to host it/spend time applying patches if people wish to
>> still
>> give it a go.
>
> I guess there are a lot of people who have been using Michael Smith's
> great script and are all thinking the same thing.  I'm willing to work
> on it too, but if ninemsn is determined to make their site unscrapable
> and willing to devote the resources, it's probably an exercise in
> futility.  I can think of several things they could do that we
> couldn't really work around.  Though it might be fun to keep them
> scrambling as long as possible :-b .
>

In a way I like the idea of making them waste a lot of resources
combatting an army of motivated and skilled programmers. I'm pretty sure
anything they can do to make it unscrapable would prevent "normal" people
using it too, they can make it tricky but I don't think they can make it
impossible.

> I took a look around and found that SBS, ABC, ABC2, and Ten all have
> online schedules for their own programming (ABC's go more than 2 weeks
> into the future and have more detail, eg, what today's Four Corners is
> covering and who's on Enough Rope.  Neither OzTivo nor Ninemsn have
> this info.) that shouldn't be too hard to scrape.  None of them have
> policies I could find against scraping.  But I couldn't find that kind
> of site for seven or nine, just their "don't scrape me" sites.  I'm
> not sure about SBS NEWS.  I was thinking about a script to scrape the
> sites of each station, and then maybe use OzTivo for Seven and Nine.
> Of course, this is nowhere near enough for cable subscribers, but it
> covers the FTA digital stations.
>

> Maybe the best solution would be to see if ABC, SBS, and Ten would be
> willing to put their sites under a creative common license and to
> allow a single nightly scrape of their sites into OzTivo.  Then
> everyone could benefit from greater detail in OzTivo program listings
> with less effort, and without undue stress on the stations' servers.
> Has this been tried?

Great minds think alike. I have already emailed ABC to ask about the terms
of their online guide (it goes up to August 5 as of today!). I thought I
might follow up by asking if they might be willing to provide source data
of some kind.

I'm not really sure why the immir script was engineered to use ninemsn?
Hell I don't even get channel nine on my digital card where I live. I only
really want listings for ABC and SBS, and I'm fairly certain (since they
don't rely on in show advertising) they don't mind if people PVR their
shows.

I was thinking if ABC/SBS/any other willing channels were to provide data
to the oztivo server under the right license, it would just increase their
viewership.




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